If anything can bring us together…..

Some would say, with recent performances, the North London Derby couldn’t have come at a worse time. For me, the one single fixture we all look for more than others, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

It seems like the squabbling fan base is on the brink of civil war. I keep expecting to see Oliver Cromwell having a “Tony Adams” in Piebury Corner. Last season, going into the home derby we were up the creek, we hadn’t just lost the paddle, the boat had more holes in it than a Chelsea racism allegation. If there is one thing that can unite us all again it would be beating the big timers from the High Road.

If we can pull off a win this time it could, once again, kick start a stuttering season. Unlike our last victory in the home derby, there’s enough of a season left to go onwards and really do something. I mean win something, yes it’s great to finish above the shadow dwellers but listen, I want to be back to the time when being above Spurs was pretty much a given, not a task in hand. A win against the old enemy could re-instil some pride and confidence into this team. It could put some added fire in their belly. It may give Arsene the sparkle back in his eye and take the heat off ever so briefly.

In football you are only as good as your last result. If we get this one right it will put some semblance of a smile back on even the most miserable faces.

Seventeen years, seventeen long years, they are desperate for this and their team will be up for it. Our squad must be as well and then some.

Lets face it, things aren’t great, you can go all Ostrich and stick your head in the sand and just enjoy supporting, that’s your prerogative. If you still believe in the way things are, more power to you. You can vent and say you want change, that is your right and you may be correct, or you can stand in the middle smiling while all around you Rome, supposedly, burns. At the end of the day, however, don’t lose sight of the one thing that binds us all, the one thing we should want the best for, Arsenal Football Club.

Here’s a revolutionary idea, rather than slate each other for holding these various views why not accept we all have our own opinions and pull together a bit more. When a city is under siege, if the people inside it start fighting each other instead of the enemy, the city will fall.

It’s our job as supporters to get together for ninety minutes, to rock the ground to its very core. To make so much ruckus that the foundations shake.

You need look no further than our motto….

VICTORIA CONCORDIA CRESCIT

Hopefully you Gooners don’t need a degree in Latin to translate that proverb.

To the players:

Yeah I know you’ll never read this but it’s about time the “professionals” at this club started playing for the shirt. It’s blood sweat and tears time lads. Take a look at the fans around you when you walk out on that pitch. This fixture means more to us than you’ll ever really understand. Take a look at the pictures of past glories hanging on the walls as you walk through the player entrance towards the dressing room. Those great moments, those great players, their past successes, they form the fabric of this club. The individuals with pride of place on the wall and the teams they played in, they had rough moments. It wasn’t all plain sailing, but they had the hearts and desires of winners. Frank McLintock, one of the greatest captains this team has ever seen had to endure four Wembley defeats as a player, Then in 1971, one nil down in extra time against Liverpool, staring at a fifth defeat, he gripped his team by the balls and drove them to FA Cup glory. That’s why the fans cherish that sort of effort so much. They will remember a victor in red and white forever.

There’s a place on the wall for you if you have the guts to take it.

It’s not always about who has the most talent, look at what happened to Barcelona at Parkhead recently. Belief and fight can take you just as far as talent and skill. There’s enough of the later in this side, without doubt, I want to see what else you have to offer. So when the whistle goes on Saturday think hard about the words of one of our greatest ever players, the immortal lines uttered by a man that bled Arsenal Football Club, David Rocastle: